Lake Elsinore, Wildomar officers honored for auto theft work

Three Lake Elsinore police officers and one Wildomar officer received accolades this week for their work in combating auto theft.

The California Highway Patrol in cooperation with the Automobile Club of Southern California issued "10851" awards to Officers Tom Mix, Dan Householder and Gabriel Constantine of the Lake Elsinore Police Department and Andrew Mata of the Wildomar Police Department.

The awards are named after the reference number for automobile theft in the California Penal Code. To be honored with the award, an officer must do one of the following: make at least six arrests of suspects driving stolen vehicles; recover at least 12 stolen vehicles; or help identify a theft ring, arrest at least two suspects and recover at least 10 vehicles.

Of the four officers, Mata led in the value of vehicles recovered at $132,000, while Mix won his second award for vehicles recovered valued in excess of $100,000, a news release states. Constantine took in vehicles valued at more than $50,000 while Householder helped identify a theft ring and recovered vehicles valued at more than $20,000, according to the release.